Buffalo plaid - not just a Christmas tradition! The Mackinaw jacket is said to have been designed by a Métis storekeeper. The coats were made by white and Métis women near Mackinac for a multicultural force in defense of Canada in the war of 1812.

When those war veterans later settled around Orillia they brought their Mackinaws with them, creating a local folk fashion craze that spread outward across the nation and became the definitive uniform of lumberjacks all across Canada.